Overhang is any part of the load projecting beyond the carrier footprint. A carton with no board beneath it loses much of its compression strength, so a unit with overhang cannot be safely double stacked. Add edge damage in transit and a clash with the consignee's beam, and you get a refusal even when the goods are untouched.
Why a few centimetres make that much difference
Because a carton carries vertical load mainly through its corners and vertical edges. If a corner hangs in the air it has nothing to bear on, and the whole column loses capacity — not in proportion to the overhang, but far faster. That is why a warehouse does not judge overhang in terms of "sticking out a bit": from its point of view the unit will either hold a pallet placed on top of it in racking or it will not, with no third option. Stacking conditions are set out in pallet stacking in the UK.
Three consequences that arrive together
First: lost strength. The mechanism above means units with overhang must not be double stacked, which instantly doubles the space they take in a trailer and in a warehouse.
Second: transit damage. A projecting corner is the first point of contact with the curtain, a post, a lashing strap and the neighbouring unit. Every braking event and every road joint lands on that edge. A few hundred kilometres later the carton is scuffed and the film torn at that point — which by itself can trigger a refusal, as covered in stretch wrapping to DC requirements.
Third: racking clash. A racking location is sized to the pallet footprint plus handling clearance. A unit with overhang either will not go in or goes in so tightly that it catches the beam on retrieval and sheds stock. Goods-in staff know this from experience and reject the pallet before it goes anywhere near the racking.
How much overhang is acceptable?
It depends on the consignee and their infrastructure — the only binding source is the supplier specification of that particular warehouse [[TO BE CONFIRMED — the specific consignee's requirements]]. There is no standard binding on everyone, and there is no sense working to a figure picked up from another customer. Retail requirements are collected in UK retail pallet requirements, and Amazon's in Amazon UK pallet requirements.
One safe rule is universal: if you have to measure the overhang to decide whether it fits, the load is badly built. A properly built unit simply does not project.
Overhang and the chargeable dimension
It counts, in full. A dimensioning scanner reads the smallest cuboid enclosing the unit, so every projecting carton enlarges the chargeable dimension — the mechanism is described in weighing and measuring pallets before departure. That is an additional and quite measurable price of overhang: you pay for space you did not intend to take and nobody else can use.
What to do when the carton is bigger than the pallet
Four exits, best first. One: move to a larger carrier. A 600×400 mm carton divides a euro pallet exactly, but an odd-module carton often suits the 1200×1000 format better — the layer arithmetic is in restacking from 1200×800 to 1200×1000. Two: change the carton module at the next packaging revision; permanent, but slow. Three: change the layer pattern — rotating every second layer by 90 degrees can eliminate overhang on one side at the cost of a small void inside. Four, as a last resort: use a non-standard pallet sized to the load and agree it with the consignee in advance.
What not to do: never try to "pull the overhang in" with film. Tensioned film crushes the carton corners and worsens what it was meant to fix, and the unit gets refused anyway.
Underhang — the problem nobody mentions
A load noticeably smaller than its carrier is also trouble. The pallet edges project, so they knock into neighbouring units during forklift manoeuvres. An upper pallet placed on such a unit bears on the load rather than on the footprint, concentrating weight in the middle. And finally: you pay for a full pallet space while carrying air. On regular part-filled shipments it is worth considering a smaller footprint or consolidating with another SKU, as described in mixed pallets.
Can a carrier refuse to load a pallet with overhang
Yes, and sometimes it should. The driver is answerable for the load travelling safely, and a unit that cannot be strapped without crushing a corner is a problem in a roadside check too. Our practice sits in between: we do not refuse reflexively, we photograph the unit, add a remark to the consignment note and tell the shipper before departure, so they have a choice — fix it now or knowingly accept the risk of refusal. Once a refusal happens at the consignee, the procedure in a consignee refusing delivery in the UK applies.
Sources
- DVSA / GOV.UK: load stability and securing, loader duties
- EPAL: the 1200×800 mm footprint and euro pallet load limits
Got a load that will not sit inside the carrier footprint? Give the carton dimensions in the quote form and we will select the carrier and layer pattern. The lane is described on our transport to the United Kingdom page.
